PRESS BRIEFING BY IRAQ SANCTIONS COMMITTEE
Press Briefing
PRESS BRIEFING BY IRAQ SANCTIONS COMMITTEE
19970318
FOR INFORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS SECRETARIAT ONLY
At a press briefing yesterday afternoon, correspondents were told that the Security Council Committee established under resolution 661 (1990) to monitor the sanctions against Iraq had approved 34 out of 56 applications that had been submitted to it by the Secretariat, which had received a total of 324 applications.
Speaking for the Committee's Chairman, Antonio Victor Martins Monteiro (Portugal), a minister counsellor in the Permanent Mission of Portugal, Ana Gomes, stressed the new pace at which the process was proceeding. She pointed out that last week alone, 34 new applications had been received by the Secretariat. Nineteen were submitted to the Committee, and 19 were approved. "Of the total of 34 approved so far, 19 were approved in the last week. This indeed shows that the measures to speed up the process are working", she said.
She expressed disappointment, however, that while oil contracts were proceeding at a good pace, no food was arriving in Iraq, but hoped that as a result of the discussion of the matter in the Security Council last week, it was clear the Committee was not at fault. She noted that the delays had to do with parties interfering in the contracts, to such an extent that shipments which were due last week were now going to arrive at the end of the month.
Ms. Gomes recalled that the Committee had outlined its concerns in a report submitted last week by its Chairman, and also in the report of the Secretary-General on the first 90 days of the application of the resolution, which authorized States to import up to $1 billion of Iraqi petroleum and petroleum products every 90 days to meet Iraqi humanitarian needs. The Committee was also asked to develop expedited procedures for implementing the resolution.
Ms. Gomes told correspondents that the main issue the Committee had covered at its meeting was the question of the priorities that should be considered when dealing with the applications for supplies under the resolution. The Committee had acknowledged that there were problems regarding the process of the approval of the applications for such contracts, as the process was complex and unprecedented. As a result, the Committee itself and the United Nations were faced with new problems everyday that no one anticipated when the resolution and the procedures were being drafted. As that was a widely shared concern in the Committee, it had last month approved a few "points of understanding" with a view to expediting the processing of applications of the contracts submitted to the Committee.
On that subject, she gave the example of some contracts about which some delegations had raised questions, pointing out that they had been indefinitely put on hold, the monies for them frozen and unavailable for other purchases. The points of understanding tried to establish deadlines of five working days from the circulation of an application by the Secretariat, after which Committee members would either decide that it was blocked and the money directed to another contract, or gave permission for the contract to go ahead.
She said that the Secretariat had gone ahead to hire one more expert to deal with the processing of the applications, and the results had been the improvement she had described. Another important element was the question of priorities in the consideration of the applications. She recalled that the rule established earlier by the Committee was the first-come-first-served, but noted that the Committee had already accepted deviations from that general rule -- which was that on a case-by-case basis the Committee could decide otherwise upon a request by the Iraqi authorities, or by an agency involved.
Ms. Gomes said that the Committee was now considering further measures by taking a favourable view of a proposal to establish a list of priorities to deal with contracts for essential products for the food basket stipulated in the distribution plan. The Committee had, therefore, decided to look seriously into that, and its experts would meet this week to work out a plan. The issue, she noted, was a concern of both the Iraqis and the Committee, which would be looking into it with the cooperation of the Secretariat, the specialized agencies, the Department of Humanitarian Affairs and the World Health Organization (WHO). The Committee would meet again next Monday and hoped to be able to approve a plan on the issue.
She further told correspondents that the Committee had asked the Secretariat to organize an orientation session open to all delegations next Friday to familiarize them with the process of submitting applications under the resolution, so that everyone could help in expediting the process. Pointing out the enormity of the problem, she said that people might be surprised that of 324 applications received by the Secretariat, only 56 were submitted to the Committee. It was not because the Secretariat was unable to process the elements, she emphasized, but because many of the processes were incomplete in a lot of applications. The countries which submitted the contracts were often unfamiliar with what was really a complicated procedure, and important elements were missing in the applications. She hoped that the orientation session would be helpful in that regard.
Asked if the press could attend the session, she said it depended on the Secretariat, explaining that it would basically be a technical session to inform people about how to process the applications. She said the media might consider it boring, but that the Committee could always brief correspondents afterwards.
Sanctions Committee Briefing - 3 - 18 March 1997
Answering another question, she said that the Kuwaiti Government had conveyed to the Committee a request from a Kuwaiti company for authorization to request a Jordanian agent bank to contact a branch of an Iraqi bank in Jordan to exchange Iraqi bonds in the company's possession for new ones, so as not to lose its rights by proscription. The Committee understood that there would be no financial transaction in the matter, but the Kuwaiti company wanted to make sure it would keep a valid title to the assets it possessed, which the bonds were supposed to be proof of. As the Committee had never dealt with such a situation before, it decided to ask for more information. But the financial experts of the different delegations did not have enough information either, so the Committee would ask for more data from the interested company.
Asked if there was any action on the pricing mechanism, she replied there had been none. That was normally dealt with by the overseers reporting to the Committee and had been recently dealt with by them so there was nothing on the agenda about it.
Another correspondent wanted to know if the Committee had also considered the Iraqi request to unfreeze its assets. She said there had been no such request. The only related item had to do with a postal entity in Singapore which asked the Committee about the legality of paying debts it owed to the Iraqi Postal Administration to the Universal Postal Union instead. The Committee felt that that would not be in accordance with the resolution, because it would turn into a benefit for Iraq as it would mean payment of that debt to Iraq.
Asked about the letter from the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Hiroshi Nakajima, who recently visited Iraq, in connection with his concern to examine the medical supplies requested by Iraq, she said the matter would be dealt with at the Committee's next meeting. She further pointed out that one of the issues raised by the Director-General, that of priority items, was already a concern of the Committee and was the same one she had indicated was being examined by it this week.
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